


best after all

by liionne



Series: A thousand ways to meet [37]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Babies, Domestic, M/M, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-05 00:00:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1798096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liionne/pseuds/liionne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim and Bones are paired together for the semester long Baby Simulator project, in which they have to care for a little plastic baby doll. Things go better than expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	best after all

**Author's Note:**

> The work is based on [this post](http://studymy-ass.tumblr.com/post/88566257248/starsailxr-yeah-but-jim-and-bones-as-best) which I haven't been able to stop thinking about for a while now.
> 
> And the title comes from the quote, "What good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all." from Benjamin Spock. Seemed appropriate in more ways than one.
> 
> And I suppose this is beta'd but not beta'd. I ran it through an online spell checker, but who knows. I would go through it myself, but it's nearly 3am and I'm struggling to stay awake as it is. Hopefully said online spell checker has my back.

There was an odd number of girls and boys in their Life Skills and Development class. Sixteen girls and eighteen boys meant that though couples for the semester-long Baby Simulator course were supposed to be mixed gender, there would be one same gender couple.

Leonard could have predicted that it would be him. As soon as he counted the number of boys and girls in the room, he knew. He had no doubt. That was just his luck. And whilst he still clung on to a faint hope that he might get paired with Jocelyn Darnell, the pretty girl with the auburn hair from his Chemistry class, she was paired off with Clay Treadway, and his heart immediately sank. He wouldn't mind being paired with Pamela Branch, 'cause she was kind of cute, but then she was paired off with Gary Mitchell.

And then the teacher came to Leonard.

Pike set the baby down on the desk. It was a freaky little thing. Leonard had always hated baby dolls ever since his sister left one in his bed when he was ten. He pulled back the covers and found it lying there, staring at him, and he had hated them ever since.

"Leonard, you'll be paired with Jim for the activity."

Pike left it at that, and returned to the front to explain the rules. Leonard glared at the baby. He was going to hate this.

He turned to Jim, though, and gave him a small smile. Well, it could have been worse. Although Leonard would've liked the chance to look all soft and sensitive in front of Jocelyn, 'cause girls loved that stuff apparently, things weren't so bad. Jim was his best friend, after all.

"Maybe when can take the batteries out." Jim grinned. Leonard snickered, but he knew that wasn't an option, as inviting as it sounded.

"Can't." He said. "Got a sensor in the back. Teacher'll know."

Leonard turned it over, and showed him. There was a seal on the back; if the seal was opened, the teacher would know about it. Only the teacher could change the batteries in the damn thing, and he said that was only going to happen a few times.

"So we're gonna have to make up a schedule, or somethin'." Leonard added. Jim looked a little fed up about that, but not as fed up as Leonard did. At least Leonard wasn't  _totally_ alone, then.

Jim looked up at him, met his gaze, and sighed. "Yeah. We'll have to." He nodded.

They decided that they would have the baby for alternating weeks, because doing it a day at a time was just dumb. The sheet they had been given with their instructions - which were all written in comic sans, as if this thing wasn't bad enough - said that they didn't actually have to spend any time together, but it was encouraged, for the "learning experience". Leonard knew they probably would, anyway. Jim was over at his house more often than not.

But apparently Jim had plans, and they needed to decide who was going first tonight. So because he lost the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors they played to see who would take it home first, Leonard took the baby home. He wasn't going to give the stupid thing a name, other than Spawn of Satan, The Antichrist. He had always hated baby dolls.

He ignored it for the first two hours until it began to wail. He put it under his bed, and ignored it for a further hour. And then his mom came upstairs, hammered on the door, and yelled, "See to the goddamn baby Lenny or so help me god-!"

Three hours with the damn thing and already it was ruining his life.

It had come with a little bag of stuff- a fake bottle (which wasn't actually fake it had to be filled up with water that was at the right temperature- water which then came out the other end), a whole pack of diapers (his mom said they were the cheap kind; Leonard didn't know, nor did he care), and a selection of clothes (which were all white, so no hints to the gender). Leonard went with the bottle, shoving the teat into the hole that served as the baby's mouth, and though that was what it wanted it didn't shut up. It made a horrible gurgling noise that sounded like tar going down a drain, and then it stopped. Leonard waited for it to do something else, but it didn't. So he put it down on the bed, and turned to his physics notes instead.

But of course, the peace didn't last. The damn thing made this odd noise, like a whimpering crossed with a grunting, and Leonard growled. He was going to throw it out of the window pretty damn soon.

When Jim came over to his house the next day, he found Leonard glaring at it. It was still making that god awful noise. Had been all night.

"I don't know what it wants." He spat.

Jim looked between the two of them. "When did you last feed her?"

"I don't know. Yesterday." Leonard asked. He was a little bit tired- alright, more than a little bit. He hadn't slept because the damn thing had fussed all night.

"Did you burp her?" Jim continued.

Now that got Leonard. "Burp her?"

"Yeah, y'know." Jim picked the baby doll up, and held it to his chest. Leonard watched, somewhat in awe, as Jim patted his back and earned himself a noise that sounded somewhat like a burp, and the baby fell silent. "You've got to burp them or they get gassy, and then they fuss. I guess he was just fussing."

And out of all that, Leonard decided to go with, "Her?"

"Looks like a she." Jim answered. He threw himself down on Leonard's bed, leaving the baby at the foot of it. Apparently whilst he was good at it, he didn't want too much to do with it either.

Leonard winced. "Please don't tell me you're going to name it."

In return, Jim grinned. "I was thinking about it. How about Lena?"

"Lena?" Leonard asked. He sounded tired. He _was_ tired.

"Yeah. Sounds like a female version of Leonard. And this baby is fussy- just like you." Jim picked the baby up, regarded it. "I think she suits it. Lena it is."

Leonard sighed, getting up out of the desk chair and pushing Jim as a signal for him to shove over. He wasn't going to argue on the name thing. "I'm going to nap." He announced. "Look after the baby for me."

Jim just rolled his eyes; he didn't get up off the bed. Leonard decided that he didn't mind.

~*~

It took Leonard a month before he liked taking care of the baby, because it took him a month to learn what he was actually supposed to do with it. And once he had learned what to do, and he wasn't struggling, and he could shut it up no problem, he found he didn't have too much of a problem with the kid.

The diaper changing took a well to get used to, and there were no midnight feeds (usually), so at least he started getting a good night's sleep. He got into a routine with the thing, just like he got into a routine with Jim.

It took an extra month before he started noticing things about Jim. He liked the baby a lot now, liked looking after it, especially when he only had to do it for a week at a time (his mom said she _wished_ she could have only had him for a week at a time, because, like Jim said, he was a fussy baby), and he liked it when Jim came over even more. He had stopped caring about being paired with Jocelyn, even though he had heard she was having a terrible time with Clay and was looking for a new partner to swap with, because he had decided that he liked being paired with Jim, for a whole number of reasons.

Jim was good with the kid, for a start. Leonard's first instinct when it cried was always to go for the bottle, and try diaper, wrapping it up warmer, and rocking, in that order, until it stopped. But Jim- Jim had a sixth sense. He'd just _know_. And sometimes Leonard would see him just lean over, tuck the blankets around the baby in the makeshift Moses basket his mom had helped them to make by donating an old washing basket, before the thing had even made a sound.

And even though Jim was only sixteen and still pretty young looking, he looked so much more grown up when he held the baby, which he still insisted on calling Lena, rocking it, dressing it. Leonard found that the more he watched him, the closer he wanted to be.

Their relationship was shifting; Leonard just wasn't sure how.

~*~

"She needs a bath." Jim declared. It was three months into the project, with just one month left to go, and so far in the way of bath time, all they had been doing was wiping her over with a wet wipe.

Which was why Leonard didn't even look over from his biology notes when he said, "Wipes are in the bathroom."

There was silence. When he did look over, Jim was frowning, holding the baby in his arms. "No Bones." He said. "A _proper_ bath."

"...Why?" Leonard asked. He set his pen down slowly.

"Well I asked Pike if we could, and he said yes." Jim said, rocking her a little. It. Rocking it, Leonard corrected himself. "So we should."

Leonard narrowed his eyes, and signed. "Fine."

He went through to the bathroom and began to run the bath, only filling a little bit of the tub; enough to settle their baby in but not enough to drown it. He tested it with his elbow, and decided that it was good enough. Jim brought it through, stripped it, and set it in the water.

Leonard thought it was silly, at first, but he came around quite quickly. Jim splashed water over its head, and Leonard took care to wash its feet and its legs. He reached up as Jim reached down to wash its arms, and their fingers brushed.

And it wasn't like their finger hadn't brushed before, but this time it was different. There was a jolt of electricity that caused him to pull back, hand flitting through the water and smacking off the side of the bath. When he looked back, Jim's hand had stilled. Maybe he had felt it too.

"I'll got sort its clothes." He said, scrambling up to standing.

Jim just nodded turned back to the baby. As he washed her this time, his hand was slower, he seemed more thoughtful. Leonard left him to it; it was too risky for anything like that.

~*~

Leonard thought about it for a while. He thought about it when he was looking after the baby, he thought about it in class, he thought about it right before he went to sleep and he even dreamed about it, once. He dreamed about running the back of his knuckles over Jim's cheek, pressing his lips to his gently, lightly but lasting. He dreamed about wrapping his arms around his waist, dipping his tongue into Jim's mouth and brushing against his, pressing flush to him. Nothing dirty. Not yet. He wanted to kiss Jim. He thought about kissing him a lot.

It didn't take long for Leonard to start calling the little thing _darlin',_ didn't take long for them to get into a routine of putting her to bed together, despite whose house she was staying at that week. And one week, when it was Jim's turn, Leonard went over to say goodnight, make sure she got off to sleep okay.

Jim rocked her, because he always rocked her until she went to sleep, and Leonard stood just in front of them. Closeness had never been an issue for either of them; when they walked they tended to do so side by side, shoulders brushing, when they sat they tended to lean into each other a little. It was all just habit. But now closeness with Jim felt odd, weird, like there was something crackling between them that was intangible, there but not able to be held, touched or seen, or even explained. Leonard didn't know what it was.

He looked at his watch- it was getting late. With a sigh, he stoked the top of Lena's head and murmured, "G'night darlin'." And then, as if they'd been doing this the whole time, he leaned in a pressed a soft kiss to Jim's lips.

Jim nearly dropped the baby.

She woke up, whimpered, but neither of them were too focused on her. Leonard staggered back, stumbling towards Jim's bedroom door, stuttering apologies as he went. Jim stared wide-eyed at him, pupils blown wide as he looked at Leonard.

"Jim I'm sorry I- I didn't- I just- i don't know what I- I- I'm so sorry, I-"

Jim was fast but he was careful as he set the baby down in her basket, taking three big strides across the room until he could curl finger in Leonard's shirt and tug him into him, their lips meeting a lot harder and a lot faster than they had before.

"Jim, I-"

"Jeez, Bones, shut up." Jim muttered, not moving his lips any further than an inch from Leonard's. "You'll wake the baby."

And that really did seem like a good enough excuse to keep on kissing.

~*~

"Leonard and Jim- full marks. You understood the task perfectly. Well done, boys."

Jim beamed, even if he was a little upset to be giving Lena back today. Leonard was a little upset too, though he wouldn't admit it. She sat on the desk in front of them until Pike picked her up and put her back in the box that was already full of plastic baby dolls. With his free hand, Jim gave a little wave to her- his other hand was under the desk, held in Leonard's, their fingers tangled together.

Full marks and a pretty stable relationship was far more than Leonard had been hoping for when they'd started this project; now all he was hoping for was the real thing to be so easy.

**Author's Note:**

> I am looking for a beta, officially. I really just want someone to read through in order to check my spelling and grammar, really. If anyone's interested, they can message me [here](http://studymy-ass.tumblr.com/ask) or [here. ](http://starspxngledman.tumblr.com/ask)Thanks!


End file.
